Skip to main content
Log in

Armchair luck: Apriority, intellection and epistemic luck

  • Varia
  • Published:
Acta Analytica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper argues that there is such a thing as luck in acquisition of candidate apriori beliefs and knowledge, and that the possibility of luck in this “armchair” domain shows that definitions of believing by luck thatp offered in literature are inadequate, since they mostly rely on the possibility of it being the case that not-p. Whenp is necessary, such a definition should be supplemented by one pointing to variation in belief, not in the fact believed. Thus the paper suggests a focus upon the agent and her epistemic virtue in the account of epistemic luck in general.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ameson R J. (Ms), “Luck Egalitarianism Interpreted and Defended,” available on author’s web page.

  • Benfield, D. (1974), “TheA priori—APosteriori Distinction,”Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 35 151–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn, S. (2001), “Reason, Virtue and Knowledge,” inVirtue Epistemology: Essays on Epistemic Virtue and Responsibility, edited by Abrol Fairweather and Linda Zagzebski, Oxford University Press.

  • Brady, M., (forthcoming), “Appropriate Attitudes and the Value Problem,” (forthcoming inAmerican Philosophical Quarterly, January 2006).

  • Brady, M. S., & Pritchard, D. H. (eds.), (2003),Moral and Epistemic Virtues, Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brady, M. S., & Pritchard, D. H. (eds.), (2006),Epistemic virtue and epistemology, special issue ofPhilosophical studies, v. 130.

  • Cottingham, J. (2002), “Descartes and the Voluntariness of Belief,”The Monist, v. 85, no. 3, 343–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorr, C, (2005 draft) “De ReA priori Knowledge” Draft of August 31, 2005.

  • Driver J. (2006), “Luck and Fortune in Moral Evaluation,” web conference OPC, May 2006, available at the web http://experimentalphilosophy. typepad.com

  • Dummett, M. (1991), “Frege and Kant on Geometry,” inFrege and Other Philosophers, Duckworth, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engel, M. (1992a), “Is Epistemic Luck Compatible With Knowledge,”Southern Journal of Philosophy, XXX/2, 59–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engel, M. (1992b), “Personal and Doxastic Justification in Epistemology,”Phil. Studies, v. 67, 133–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ginet, C.(1975),Knowledge, Perception and Memory, Reidel.

  • Ginet, C. (1988), “The Fourth Condition,” in Austin, D.F. (ed.),Philosophical Analysis: A Defense by Examples, Kluwer, 105–107.

  • Greco, J. (1999), Agent Reliabilism,Philosophical Perspectives, v. 13, 273–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greco, J. (2003). Knowledge as Credit for True Belie’, inIntellectual Virtue: Perspectives from Ethics and Epistemology, (eds.) M. DePaul & L. Zagzebski, Oxford University Press.

  • Harper, W., “Knowledge and Luck,”The Southern Journal of Philosophy, v. XXXIV, No. 3. 1996, 273–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawthorne J. (2000), “Implicit belief andA priori Knowledge”The Southern Journal of Philosophy, v. XXXVII, Supplement, 191–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irwin, T. (1995),Plato’s Ethics, Oxford University Press.

  • Latus, A. (2003), “Constitutive luck”Metaphilosophy Vol. 34, No. 4, 450–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. (1986),On the Plurality of Worlds, Blackwell.

  • Millikan, R.G. (2000),On Clear and Confused Ideas, Cambridge University Press.

  • Nasar, S. (1998),Beautiful Mind, Simon and Shuster.

  • Peacocke, C. (1998), «Implicit Conceptions, Understanding and Rationality»,Philosophical Issues, 9, 43–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peacocke, C. (2005), “TheA priori” in Jackson, F. and Smith, M. (Eds.),The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy, Oxford University Press.

  • Peacocke, C. 2004.The Realm Of Reason, Oxford University Press.

  • Peacocke, C. (2005), “TheA priori” in Jackson, F. and Smith, M. (Eds.),The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy, Oxford University Press.

  • Pritchard, D. (2005),Epistemic Luck, Oxford University Press.

  • Pritchard, D. (ms1), “Virtue Epistemology And Epistemic Luck, Revisited” (available on his website).

  • Pritchard, D. (Ms2), “McDowellian Neo-Mooreanism,” (draft available on his website).

  • Prtichard, D. (Ms3), “Anti-Luck Epistemology” (coming out inSynthese, draft available on author’s website).

  • Reed, B. (2002), “How to Think about Fallibilism,”Philosophical Studies v. 107. 143–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riggs, W. (Ms), “On Luck and Value,” draft for the Epistemic value conference at Stirling, August 2006, available on the conference website.

  • Schofield, M., Burnyeat, M. Barnes, J. (eds.) (1980),Doubt and Dogmatism, Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steup, M. entryEpistemology inStanford Encyclopaedia.

  • Sosa E. (2002), “The Place of Truth in Epistemology”, in DePaul, M., and Zagzebski, L. ed.Intellectual Virtue: Perspectives from Ethics and Epistemology. Oxford University Press.

  • Stroud, B. (1979), “Inference, Belief, and Understanding,”Mind, v. 88/350. 179–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tidman, P. (1996), “The Justificationof A priori Intuitions,”Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, v.LVI, 160–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, T. (2004), “Philosophical ‘Intuition” and Skepticism about Judgment,”Dialectica, v. 58/1, 109–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, T. (2007), “Philosophical knowledge and the knowledge of counterfactuals,” to appear inGrazer Philosophische Studien.

  • Wright, C. (1991), Skepticism and Dreaming: Imploding the Demon,Mind, v. 100, 87–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nenad Miščević.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Miščević, N. Armchair luck: Apriority, intellection and epistemic luck. Acta Anal 22, 48–73 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02866210

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02866210

Keywords

Navigation